


the shoreline of wonder

by possibilityleft



Category: Nation - Terry Pratchett
Genre: F/M, canon AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-19
Updated: 2010-12-19
Packaged: 2017-10-13 19:40:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possibilityleft/pseuds/possibilityleft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The old man says: she came back once.  And because he wants the children to believe in truth, and not fairytales, he does not tell them about the second time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the shoreline of wonder

**Author's Note:**

  * For [salifiable](https://archiveofourown.org/users/salifiable/gifts).



The old man says: she came back once. And because he wants the children to believe in truth, and not fairytales, he does not tell them about the second time. There is a world where she returns, not just with a telescope, but with all of herself, but the children are not ready to learn about other futures yet.

Maybe next year.

*

First Mau learns how to read. But then he learns how to write in trouserman - in a language he is told is called English. The first letter reaches Daphne almost a year after she leaves the island the second time. His handwriting is large and childish, but his words are thin and precise. He's probably grown another foot since she's seen him, in his becoming a man, but she still pictures him how she left him when she reads the page. His words are crowded together. Paper is still hard to get in the Nation, and she is flattered.

He writes of small things. There has been another two births. An old man died - not because of anyone's gun, but because he was old. They are all learning how to read and write, but most people draw in the sand with sticks to save paper. Some of the scientists who have come are trying to decipher the writing in the caves, but in the meantime, Mau and Milo and Pilu are trying to make a new one. He includes some simple sentences in his letter, because he knows she will be interested.

She reads the letter twice, and since no one is around, she lifts it slowly to her face and smells it. It should smell like the postal service, like whoever it is that slit the envelope before she received it (someone who is going to receive some Words from her on that subject). But she thinks that there's some smell of the sea anyway. And he's left her a fingerprint in the ink.

She folds the letter carefully and puts it away in a safe place. Then she goes looking for her father's chief minister, because he's too nosy for his own good, and the only person she knows who uses a letter opener.

Later, she writes a letter, mostly about small things.

*

The first letter that Daphne sends to the Nation becomes a teaching tool. It is passed from hand to hand, held up in the sunlight to admire the thinness of the page, and the ink fades and the white becomes grubby.

Mau donates it to the school because it seems the right thing to do. Education is a very slow process, and they still don't have many books. This is better than tearing pages out of them. He keeps the postscript, though, which amazingly comes on another page. That part is his, and he doesn't show it to anyone.

A chief is allowed a few indulgences, in theory, and this is really his only one. He likes to be able to trace her signature.

She includes some blank pages, thoughtfully, so he writes her back when he gets around to it.

*

They communicate in slow-motion. It reminds Daphne of life on the island, actually, where days tended to bleed together because there was no reason to mark them off as different. Her father says nothing about it, although when he has the time he likes to share the newest discoveries with her. She looks at photographs and is even surprised to find Mau in one. It doesn't feel right to see him like that, even though he's in a blurry corner and probably hadn't intended to be in the picture at all. He has grown tall without her. He isn't looking at the photographer, and his mouth is open.

Her grandmother is in America, so there's no one to say things about "darkies" or inappropriate crushes. She has to work through these things by herself. She thinks she does a good job.

She sends Mau a wedding invitation, scribbling on the back about English formalities and how he doesn't have to come, really, but she wanted him to know.

He doesn't come. They've been carefully observing the volcano and it's been a little too excitable for comfort. Mau stays out at the observatory for hours at a time, watching. He doesn't carry his spear, because there would be no use in throwing one at a geological phenomenon, but he clutches at the table and he doesn't think of Daphne very much, because he has duties, just like she does.

When he writes back, he tells her that the volcano has gone dormant again, and that he hopes she is happy.

*

She doesn't write back again. Her arrival on the island is unheralded by storm or steamboat. She comes in with a crowd from the Royal Society, in her oldest skirts, and she finds Mau in a crowd of laughing children. She doesn't know enough of his language to understand what they're laughing about, but all of the giggling stops, anyway, when she gets close enough. Mau sucks in a surprised breath.

"Ghost girl!" he says, and the children part like the Red Sea. His arms are firm around her waist for a moment before he pulls back and lets her go, studies her with his young-old eyes.

"I'm not a ghost, Mau," she says, frowning, and he laughs.

*

Those who spend their lives in the sunlight age quickly. Daphne's skin is delicate for a while, and the children call her ghost girl too. She sunburns easily, and then she's the lobster girl, but no one says it too loudly, because they all know that she's the one who cut Hael's leg off at the knee, and they're afraid that she'll chase them with the ax.

"You told them that was for medical reasons, Mau, didn't you?" she demands when he tells her. His lips twitch with a smile.

"We still have much to learn about doctrine," he answers, straight-faced, and she only pretends to be mad for a little while.

*

She didn't get married, as it turns out. "I kept thinking about the other worlds," she tells him once, hesitating. Most of their day is preoccupied with the little things that are necessary for running the Nation, and so sometimes it's difficult to get the big things out. They are walking along the beach, feet in the sand, and Daphne's grass skirt swishes as she walks.

"I thought too," Mau says, after a long moment. She tries to picture him in England and can't see it. Well, she can, if she squints very hard, but the man she sees is not Mau. It is someone who used to be Mau, just like she used to be Ermitrude.

She kisses his cheek, and that's all that they need to say about it, in the end.

*

They have no children. That part of the old man's story is true. They're the parents of a Nation and they don't need to increase it by themselves for that to be true.

And also, there are dolphins.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from a quote by Ralph W. Sockman. Like you, salifiable, I had hoped for a little more for the two of them, even though they both had their duties, and I finished the book two days before Yuletide closed and had to see if someone else felt the same way. Hope you enjoy!


End file.
